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Zazlotl
Information The Zazlotl are a race of vertebrates, superficially resembling fully marine salamanders. They have evolved into quadrupeds, in compliance with their crawling lifestyle, but they can also swim freely by folding their legs against their body and paddling with their tail and snaking their body through the water. Like some of the other Hydrothian sapients, the gravity of their planet coupled with their crawling lifestyle has led to them being capable of standing bipedally outside their home environments (or in more modern times, even while in the pressurized cities built to accommodate the various other Crux races). Unlike the other sapient species on Hydroth, they evolved on the submerged coastal plains of their home continent, where they spent their lives crawling throughout the caves riddling the "landscape". These continents never successfully reached the surface of the vast oceans, and therefore the Zazlotl and many other similar species living in these areas were the closest thing the planet has to a terrestrial specimen. Their eyes are positioned somewhat more stereoscopically than the Zolacians and Lyssh, due to their diet of small burrowing invertebrates. Their mouths are almost centered on a shovel-like head, and possess sharp bony ridges and powerful muscles for crushing or slicing through prey. These eyes are highly-adjustable, and can focus to see both in 'outside' and cavernous environments. However, they are not well suited for sight above water, and they are almost never seen off-world without their trademark pressurized helmets. Zazlotls led a cautious lifestyle for a long time, due in part to their soft bodies and exposed, feathery gills. While these gills cannot be withdrawn into the skull, they can be waved about to increase water circulation to them. Statistics Species Type: Cold-blooded Marine Vertebrate Lifestyle: Social Carnivores Hunt/Forage Success Rate: 100% Forage (78% success rate in natural habitats, 32% success rate on more land-based environments) Armor: Zazlotl skin is weak and susceptible, leaving them to require the creation of more durable armors through their technological prowess, or the prowess of their allies. Defenses: In a way somewhat similar to the Zolacians, the Zazlotls' main natural defense is hiding in caves or attempting to swim away after biting a foe. In more modern times, this is impractical, and they will therefore utilize body armors, cybernetic implants, and energy shields. Weapons: The Zazlotls only real natural weaponry is their sharp bone-plates in their mouth, therefore most of their weaponry is technological in nature. Cybernetic, energy-utilizing enhancements are not uncommon. Tools: Because they are not used for swimming, the phalanges of the Zazlotl are not webbed, and they have therefore had little difficulty adapting them post-sapience into tool-building machines. Although all four limbs are just as useful to construct objects, they are less likely to use the hind limbs, if only because they cannot 'easily' see what they're doing. Method of Eating: Once food is in their mouths, the Zazlotl will masticate it some, both to make sure it is dead and to make as much of it into paste as quickness allows for easier digestion. This food is then swallowed, and is guided down the esophagus thanks to muscular contractions. Like so many other creatures on their planet, a specialized organ called the paragaster excretes enzymes into the stomach to properly break down the chitinous material of their prey. Once material is broken down, it passes into the intestine, where it is further broken down and absorbed into the body. Their digestive system is powerful and efficient, and little is wasted once the process is finished, leaving nearly no waste at all; however, they do have the ability to excrete it, and it is sweat as out of the skin on the back half of the body, and is very similar in appearance to typical sweat. All waste is colorless and usually odorless. Reproductive Rate: Like the other Hydrothian races, the Zazlotls breed during the warm "summer" seasons, during which time males and females will actively seek each other out. Mating is sexual and involves direct physical contact. Both males and females will take approximately half of the created eggs, which are placed in a pouch like organ on their backs -- this helps lower offspring mortality before their larval forms. The Zazlotls have declined the use of cloning technologies used by some allies in more modern times. Gestation: Under Construction Number of Offspring: Under Construction Offspring Survival Rate (before age of maturity): Under Construction Singular/Plural/Possessive: Zazlotl/Zazlotls/Zazlotli Historical Background Below is information entailing the history of the Zazlotls, from simple marine organisms to spacefaring beings. Evolutionary History Under Construction The Tribal Era Under Construction Discovery by the Zolacians Being such a cautious species did not quickly lead them anywhere near an open water exploration age, and instead theirs consisted of crawling about the ground floor and sea mounts dotting their submerged continent's 'surface', with many explorers searching for new, more exciting invertebrates to eat. While they did possess philosophers, they spent most of their time trying to prophesize what might lie beyond the stormy surface of their watery world, and few even considered other species "like themselves" - sapient. This led to a very big surprise when the Zolacians landed upon their continent and discovered them. These Zolacians were nearly as cautious as the Zazlotl themselves, and both species at first kept hiding from one another, trying to size the other one up without being spotted, both fearing the other would be a predator. While some Zazlotls entertained the idea that the Zolacians might be edible, as they were invertebrates after all, this was considered a ridiculous thought, as the Zolacians were much larger than their general prey, and their size alone scared the rest of their kind straight. Eventually, both species finally started to spend some time around one another more openly as curiosity got hold of each, and with some time, each learned enough of the others' language to communicate successfully. This was mostly thanks to the efforts of Zazlotl patrons, who strove to learn the language of this, the most intelligent food they had ever seen. With peace talks in session, they reached a tentative agreement, and became allies for each species' greater good. With a new renaissance era opening up before them, their technologies boomed with the combination of minds of two species, and soon the Zazlotl were just as capable of open-ocean travel as their invertebrate allies had been. With this ability, both species set out together to explore more of their world, spending several years searching the oceans. The Zolacians warned the smaller Zazlotl about the Ghazra and the Lyssh, telling them never to enter those waters if they valued their own existences. They finally discovered the one remaining sub-continent, and were pleased to find yet another sapient species. To this end both species were excited, but it was the Zolacians were were put the most in awe -- this new race, the Hydrothi, were another invertebrate race, very similar physically to the Zolacians themselves, giving them almost a mirror to stare into...or at least the closest one they had found in the sapient creatures of their world. These Hydrothi were peace-lovers and contrasted the neutralistic nature of the Zazlotl and the more paranoid nature of the Zolacians quite well, giving the three species a very broad outlook on life. Possibly due to their physical similarities to the Zolacians, they were much more quickly communicated with in comparison to the more salamanderine Zazlotls. With an alliance quickly struck, the three species started to trade successfully between one another, and within a small timeframe cities consisting of all three races were popping up. This coupling would become known by future historians as the Troika. An Unintentional Betrayal & the Collapse of the Troika It was not more than a few hundred years before the Zazlotl came across the Ghazra. The Zazlotl soon discovered that the Ghazra were not nearly as hostile to them as the Zolacians had said they would be, and the two species were able to set up a relationship with one another. Partially through caution and partially through absentmindedness and excitement, they did not reveal this precarious alliance to the rest of the Troika, and its existence remained unaffected emotionally for quite some time. At the same time, however, the Ghazra culture was highly affected by the Zazlotl influence, and what was once a nomadic, low technology species quickly picked up on several technologies which they began to utilize with the help of the Zazlotl. The Zazlotl had noted the nearly useless claw-fins of the Ghazra, and had taken pity upon their species. The Ghazra were able to return the favor with their hostile attitudes, working like an older brother to keep the bullies at bay. But as more and more Zazlotl quietly chose to live under the wing of these strange, tadpole-like creatures, the Zolacians and Hydrothi began to take notice. A council member was in the market one day where he spoke with the Hydrothi merchant, only to realize that he was not the only one to notice the steadily dropping Zazlotl numbers in their city. Realizing it was not just in his head, he went to his peers on the council, and they requested an emergency meeting with the Zazlotl councilors. It was revealed at this meeting that the Zazlotl had made allies with the Ghazra, and that the Ghazra were learning much from the ways of the Troika. Shaken by this admission, the Zolacian councilors showed apprehension when offered the chance to meet with a Ghazra delegate committee on open ground, and instead ended the meeting early. It was a few weeks before the Zolacians worked up the courage to bring about a second meeting, again only holding the two species in question -- the Hydrothi were kept out of the matter, mainly due to the Hydrothi having - like the Zazlotl before them - never met the Ghazra, and they might start thinking them peaceful as well. At this second meeting, the Zolacians openly admitted their fears, believing the tedious alliance between Zazlotl and Ghazra could bring about the destruction of the Troika and all it had worked so hard to garner. They first pleaded with the Zazlotl to cut their ties with the Ghazra, but when they explained that they had nothing to fear from the Ghazra, the Zolacian Councilors suddenly changed tactics, ordering the ties cut with the "free-swimming monstrosities". The Zazlotl councilors were quickly taken aback to this, and were surprised and shocked by the harsh and forceful words of their allies. They did not take kindly to being ordered to this, and unanimously their councilors refused to end their budding relationship with the Free-swimmers. When the Zolacians became outraged at this decision, the Zazlotls quickly incited their right to freedom of choice, and that they would do as they chose fit; although they did not specifically state after this that their choice was in fact to remain allies with the Ghazras, they certainly intended to do so. The meeting ended abruptly, and the Zazlotl councilors left the room in a huff, leaving the Zolacian councilors in a state of paralyzing fear and panic. The next few months passed without incident, and the Zazlotls believed that they had succeeded in swaying the Zolacians into accepting their path; Zazlotl life was good, with the weight of their secret liasons off their shoulders, they crawled about with their heads head high, almost in bliss. They were never happier knowing that they could openly converse with the Ghazra after these many years, and were even seen talking out in public about their encounters, exciting many Hydrothi children with their stories. However, while these months were excellent on the Zazlotl, they were harsh on the entire Zolacian populace, with their species growing more and more stressed as word of this alliance spread thanks to the Zazlotl's excited chatter. Many Zolacian citizens came to the councilors, explaining they lived every day in fear and every night was racked with nightmares of similar events. All Zolacians seemed to think this would end in their ultimate demise, partially because the stories of the Ghazra had become a legend, and Ghazra were one race described in scary horror stories. Realizing their citizens were under so much duress, the Zolacians tried pleading to the Zazlotl once more to end their relations, but to no avail. The councilors became enraged at this, and in a final single-race meeting, they silently declared war against what they considered to be their former ally, the Zazlotl. Not expecting these results at all, the Zazlotl were far from prepared, and large numbers of them were annihilated within a few days' time. With nearly all Zazlotl wiped off both the Hydrothi and Zolacian continents, many Zazlotls fled their ancestral lands as the threat of obliteration loomed overhead like a pall and moved into Ghazra territory, where they were welcomed by open fins. Here the two races discussed the matter, with the final conclusion that what the Zolacians were doing was very, very wrong. Choosing to stand up for themselves, both races came to the agreement of mutual war, and took after the former Troika, in a hard-fought attempt to keep their freedom. Thanks in part to the fear and terror the Ghazra could cause to roil through the ranks of the Zolacian armies, they were quickly losing ground, and it seemed as if the new alliance would win the day. However, the tides quickly turned once more as the Zolacians ordered the Hydrothi to be enlisted beside them. The dumbstruck Zazlotl and the Ghazra were soundly beaten within a few months' time, leaving them armyless. In a dual-race meeting, the former Troika (or rather, the Zolacians alone as the Hydrothi remained silent on the matter) decided that these beings needed their technologies stripped from them entirely, to prevent them from trying to incite another war. With this decided, the Zolacians went in and destroyed all technology the two races had acquired over the last few centuries, leaving both back at tribal era technologies. Any and all known technologists and constructors were then executed. Every few years at random times, the Zazlotl would return to crush their technologies once more and put again put any technologists and constructors to death. With the war over, the Hydrothi fell into a deep, brooding depression, and refused to help the Zolacians in taking down the Lyssh. Because of this the Zolacians suffered uncountable casualties at the hands of the Lyssh -- an event that pleased the Ghazra, but not the Zazlotls, who chose to keep silent about their feelings, possibly fearing another eradication of their kind. With so many Zolacians dead, they turned on the Hydrothi next, blaming them for the amounts of their blood spilled. With so few Zolacian soldiers remaining, the Hydrothi were killed during rest, an few remained by the time they were forced back to their continent. With all other sapient species beaten into submission and with no hope of fighting back, the Zolacians claimed total rule of their planet, which they eventually named in their honor: Zolacia. The Zazlotl could not believe what the Zolacians had done, and lost nearly all faith in them and a hopeful recovery. As time went on, those Zolacians who performed the dark deeds with heavy heart-equivalents perished, and the old alliances were forgotten. The generations of Zolacians who followed would rule with iron phalanges, leading to the last shreds of caring the Zazlotl had for their former Zolacian allies to rot away into nothing more than detritus. Zolacian Rule The Zolacians ruled the planet of Zolacia for many thousands of years, keeping the other four sapient species in check due to what they considered as being their more hostile natures. Over time, they had lost their love for the Hydrothi and the Zazlotl, and they felt it a necessary evil to continue to keep the others at a third world technological level, preventing each from being able to properly uprise against the ridiculously more advanced Zolacians. While the Zazlotl, Ghazra, and Lyssh did not fight back against their subjugators, the peaceful Hydrothi grew increasingly enraged over time. They did not see it fair how the Zolacians treated them, and over the course of a few hundred years, with their levels of technology constantly being hampered, the became desperate. Some of the more desperate Hydrothi chose to perform espionage attacks against their overbearing neighbors, although this did not put much of a dent in the Zolacian way of life, and led to many Hydrothian casualties, which then led to more Hydrothi terrorists, fueling the cycle all over again. As time went on, the secretive Hydrothi terrorists became more and more open to their own people about their standing, and as time went on, more and more peaceful Hydrothi began to join their ranks. Although these Hydrothian terrorists were ashamed of the position they believed that they had been forced to take, this attitude transmogrified into a true hatred as the older generations died out and new generations took their place, ones who knew nothing of peace and only of war. In their bide to take back their freedom, they had become as violent as the Zolacians themselves. At the same time, however, the Zolacians had reached a nearly Utopian society, minus the occasional terrorist attack made by the Hydrothi, and had begun to slowly become more passive in their attitudes, now that they no longer had to worry about predators or their sapient neighbors. Initially this caused them to war with themselves for the first few hundred years, but this quickly died down once they realized what they had been doing, and that it might be an exploitable weakness to their enemies. They had finally learned of true peace and prosperity, and started to look back towards the Hydrothi for an ally in these, their most peaceful times...but it was too late. The Hydrothi had already converted to a vicious species, and it seemed as if the Zolacians and the Hydrothi had completely switched positions, with the Hydrothian viciousness heavily fueled by their blood-hatred for their cousins, the Zolacians. Disheartened at the massive change they had unintentionally caused their cousin-race, they sadly turned their backs to them once more, and continued to keep them in a third-world culture like the Zazlotl, Ghazra, and Lyssh. The Crux Invasion Under Construction The Zolacian Subjugation Under Construction Under New Management Under Construction The Fall of Worlds Under Construction Open War Under Construction Allies The Zazlotls are full-fledged members of the Crux, although they are given low ranks within, with few members exceeding their racial caste. All members of the Crux and Scourge are considered their allies. Major Allies *Ghazra *Hydrothi *Lyssh Minor Allies *Abyssal Zharkulan *Avin *Ciitarkian *Mohm *Stralk *Savpraxx *Zaryn Enemies The Zazlotl feel no love towards their former allies, the Zolacian, and continue to consider them mortal enemies. Through their open war, they also now consider any races allied with the Zolacians as foes, too. Major Enemies *Ailodon *Human *Hushian *Kyisziqan *Zolacian Minor Enemies *Ciitarkian *Platterkat *Shrumite Notable Zazlotls *'Cruzpuppy:' A high-ranking Zazlotl within the Crux, and has been partnered with the Ghazra, Tadfish. Cruzzpuppy is well-known for his specially-crafted helmet, and his cybernetic arm, which utilizes charged energy for melee attacks. His tail was also reattached at one point with cybernetic technologies. Trivia *Like several of my other races listed here on SporeWikia, the Zazlotls are a race I created in 7th Grade. Like the Hydrothi and the Zolacians were spawned off of a single character -- Cruzzpuppy. *Unnamed for many many years, the Zazlotls finally received their species name on Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 at around 3:17am Alaska Standard Time. Category:Somarinoa's Content Category:Kyklos Galaxy Metaseries Category:Amalgam Online Category:Species Category:Sapient Species Category:Extraterrestrials Category:Carnivores Category:Insectivores Category:Hydroth Inhabitants Category:Troika Category:The Crux Category:Original Content Category:Original Aliens Category:Illustrated Extraterrestrials